Sunday, July 12, 2009

Closing West Point

A "sosh" professor at West Point has articulated why we should not only keep West Point open, but should clone it for other fields. I don't agree with his argument, however. The primary reason for keeping West Point open is that it's doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing--training high-caliber officers for our army. The army is pleased with West Point's product, and it's graduates are helping to win our wars.

2 comments:

allen (in Michigan)
said...

I'm sure part of the reason is symbolic, that "sending a message" nonsense that's so beloved by lefties.

Closing the military academies would signal - send a message - that America is leaving behind the crudity of brute force, that we're embracing "smart" diplomacy which does with a raised eyebrow and a supercilious attitude what was formerly done with great, big, nasty guns and the sort of de classe individuals who are seen in their vicinity.

There's the now-obligatory nod to the military - "This is no knock on the academies' graduates. They are crackerjack smart and dedicated to national service." - since it's become clear in the aftermath of the beating John Kerry took over his snotty remarks that the previously approved snottiness towards the military is no longer quite as free from repercussions as it used to be.

But that nod is just the threadbare cover for the, also, usual time-honored lefty assault on the military which starts in the next sentence.

I am pretty sure this same man would gladly close all of the schools that didn't fit into his world view. He doesn't like what he doesn't understand. I could make the similar complaint regarding comparisons of the very expensive Ivy League schools and the results from the Top Tier state schools. While the top ten percent of any class will excel, what determines a quality program is the success rate of the average student. I would put kids from places like Texas A&M. Michigan or USC head to head with their peers in the Ivy League schools and they would hold up. So if we are going to close all schools that have traditions that we don't accept or understand, like the Skull and Crossbones or the Greek System, we should simply shut them down, right? What a silly proposal.